At Least One Third Of The Featured Speakers At Virginia GOP Retreat Say Medicare Is Unconstitutional

If the Virginia Republican Party wants to move past the far right candidates that shut them out of their state’s top offices last November, they may not want to take advice from people who believe that most of the Twentieth Century is unconstitutional.

This weekend, Virginia Republican activists and elected officials from around the state will gather at the Homestead Resort for the party’s first opportunity to take full stock of a disastrous election season that likely turned the GOP out of all three of Virginia’s top state offices. Tea Party Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli lost his bid for the state governor’s mansion to very weak Democratic candidate. The party’s failed candidate for lieutenant governor was a right-wing activist who said Democrats are worse than the Ku Klux Klan. And their candidate to replace Cuccinelli is narrowly behind apparent Attorney General-elect Mark Herring (D), although a recount is currently pending.

The event’s Saturday morning awards luncheon featured Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Like Perry, Goodlatte believes that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional. At a town hall meeting in 2011, a constituent told Goodlatte that he’s “searched my Constitution for 20 years and I can’t find Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security in there.” Goodlatte agreed, replying that “it’s not in the Constitution. The courts have stretched the Constitution to say its in the general welfare clause.”